Park Tools

Find Us On

History Detectives Discover Artist's Story

History Detective Tukufu Zuberi goes to San Francisco to view watercolors from a San Francisco archive that appear to be of a prison camp. Piecing the story together shows they were painted on the back of a Japanese-American internment notices from 1942.

What is the story behind these paintings? Who was the artist? And what was his or her fate? History Detectives travels to the West Coast to solve the puzzle, uncovering the dramatic story of one of the 120,000 Americans citizens who spent years behind barbed wire, guilty only of being of Japanese descent.

(object placeholder)

The National Park Service has been given permission to show this episode by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Lion Television who produce History Detectives for PBS. This episode aired in Season 2, Episode 2 and Season 3, Episode 7. Learn more about this episode>